Flagstaff has strong showing at state chess championships

Young Flagstaff chess players walked away from the Arizona State Grade Chess Championships with six team trophies, eight individual trophies and three medals for local chess players’ strongest state showing yet.

Most of the players who attended the Jan. 9 tourney in Gilbert came from the Killip Elementary powerhouse team.

Overall Flagstaff team placements include:

— Kindergarten, 2nd (Karen Mercado Lopez, Pamela Carrasco and Ayden Tsinajinnie, all of Killip)

— First Grade, 2nd (Jennifer Barlow, Jose Luis Melendez and JJ Kraetz, all of Killip)

— Second Grade, 1st (Fidel Mercado Lopez, Matthew Garcia, Beau Gomez, Ian Glasgow-Linn, Ian Salt, Katelyn Tso, Kenneth Dunn and Joshua Spendlove, all of Killip) This was Killip’s first 1st Place in state grades.

— Third Grade, 4th (Tyler Long, Caitlyn Deerman, Isabelle Begay and Sierra Dames, all of Killip; Julian Manygoats of Puente De Hozho)

— Fourth Grade, 4th (Isleny Lopez, Rene Covel, Ana Castro and Jayson Dunn, all of Killip)

— Fifth Grade, 6th (Matthius James, of Marshall;Tyree Manygoats, Jeremy Deerman, James Dominguez, Cheyenne Tso, Nicole Tso, Nathaniel Ezzre, Esmeralda Munoz, Noemi Guerrero, Nolen Brannen, Tenetke Watson, and Malia Singer, all of Killip)

— Sixth Grade, 4th (Justin Tso, Sara Stanton, William Mitchell, Marcos Lopez, Humberto Cordero and Jesus Ortega, all of Killip)

— Seventh Grade, 4th (Devin Sommers, Sydney Gingrich and Josue’ Navarro, all of Mount Elden Middle)

— Eighth Grade, 3rd (Dillon Johnson, of Flagstaff Middle; Brandon Begay, Dakota Sallaway, Jason Lewis and Scott Hardman, all of MEMS)

Individually, the following students placed at their grade levels and qualified for the state individual chess tournament in April:

Karen Mercado Lopez, 5th; Jennifer Barlow, 6th; Fidel Mercado Lopez, 3rd; Matthew Garcia, 4th; Beau Gomez, 10th; Ian Glasgow-Linn, 11th; Isleny Lopez, medalist; Matthius James, 4th; Tyree Manygoats, medalist; Dillon Johnson, 5th. Other state qualifiers include Pamela Carrasco, Ayden Tsinajinnie, Tyler Long.

Source: http://www.azdailysun.com